This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows sedimentary-rock layering in which a series of layers are all approximately the same thickness.

Three-dimensional analysis using stereo pairs of HiRISE images has confirmed the periodic nature of the layering. Individual layers in the area average about 10 meters (33 feet) in thickness.

This image, taken on Feb. 25, 2007, is a portion of the HiRISE image catalogued as PSP_002733_1880. The location of the imaged area is at 8 degrees north latitude, 353 degrees east longitude, within the Arabia Terra region.

The view covers an area about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across, within an unnamed crater in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. An oblique view created from three-dimensional modeling shows the repetitive thickness of some of the same layers visible in this image.

This oblique view of periodic layering in Martian sedimentary layers was derived from three-dimensional modeling based on a stereo pair of images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of two.

It shows the regularity in repetition of layers with approximately the same thickness. Individual layers in the area average about 10 meters (33 feet) in thickness.

The location of the imaged area is at 8 degrees north latitude, 353 degrees east longitude, inside an unnamed crater within the Arabia Terra region.

Some of the same layers visible in the right-side half of this view are the layers that can be seen in the center of a sample view from the original HiRISE image of this area.

Rhythmic bedding in sedimentary bedrock within Becquerel crater on Mars is suggested by the patterns in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Three dimensional analysis based on stereo pairs of images confirmed the regularity of repetition in the thickness of the beds. In the left half of this image, some of the rhythm is apparent as a series of bundles of about 10 individual layers per bundle. By corresponding to a known 10-to-one pattern in changes in the tilt of Mars' rotation axis, this pattern suggests the periodicity in the rock layers results from cyclical changes in the planet's tilt.

Faulting apparent in the image suggests that the deposits are hardened rock, not softer material. Tilting of the layers in different ways and the surface topography made the three-dimensional analysis necessary for determining the thickness of layers.

This image is a portion of the HiRISE image catalogued as PSP_004078_2015, taken on June 10, 2007. The location of the imaged area is at 22 degrees north latitude, 352 degrees east longitude, within the Arabia Terra region.